The author began his bookselling life in the King's Road (not at Sandoe's but Slaney & Mackay, where JdeF worked for him briefly). For the last 30 years he has managed the Waterstones in Can... read more
Recounts seven decades of activities, with interviews that include most of the surviving former heads of the CIA and discussions of the Agency's role in containing presidential powers. Revel... read more
Following the catastrophe in which Henry's heir was drowned, England sank into a terrible civil war in which English, Normans, Scots and Welsh competed in the ancient game of thrones.
The author is a distinguished historian; as professor of British history at Stanford, she has a commanding view of the Empire and its changing narratives. Original and well-informed.
A superb account of how European imperialism in Asia was undermined by a network of ingenious radicals, who used printing presses, global travel and the colonisers' languages to spread their... read more
Takes the reader from the earliest written accounts to the present in vivid portraits. The empress Masako is there, and presumably princess Murasaki Shikibu, whose diary is not only fascina... read more
A fascinating book following the traces of a C14th monk named John of Westwyk, for whom the period was not one of darkness but of wonderful illumination and discovery.
The author of 'Wittgenstein's Poker' traces the influential circle (Neurath, Carnap, Wittgenstein, Popper) whom the Austrian fascists and Nazis saw as such a threat.
Explores the world and campaigns of the late-medieval imperialists, the Christian adventurers whose mind-sets are as remote to us today as were those of the Aztecs and Incas to them.
The 'special relationship' was dreamt up by Churchill to keep Britain afloat geopolitically when faced with the loss of empire. Buruma takes a shrewd look at Churchill and FDR, JFK and Macm... read more
Greek and Roman patrons, robber-baron philanthropists, welfare socialists, celebrity activists...: motives and results are explored through historical analysis and numerous interviews.
The director of the Bodleian includes some of the US president's deleted tweets in an historical survey that ranges from the Library of Alexandria to the Windrush papers. The surprise is tha... read more
Reinvention, escape, adventure, romance, survival... Not all the women were 'port out starboard home'. Gripping and entertaining social history from the author of 'Queen Bees'.
It was the biggest seaborne landing in history; a difficult campaign, not least because of the heat. Its success was hard-won, and crucial to the course of the war.
The clandestine manoeuvres of one branch of military intelligence, responsible for saving thousands of lives. Airey Neave, Jimmy Langley, Sam Derry and Mary Lindell emerge as central figures... read more
In 1942, seventeen ships were bombed in Bari. One of them contained mustard gas. The appalling results, though hushed up, fortunately became known to a research scientist.
Focuses on the lives of six individuals and their families who were among the 20 million Germans who never voted for the Nazis. This is an important new assessment of those who had to manage... read more
A fascinating account of the group of queer young MPs who visited Berlin in the 1930s and spoke out against Hitler. Dubbed 'the glamour boys' by Chamberlain, their warnings were ignored and ... read more